Case study | plan design and lifetime income
SUNY simplifies with a new default allowing its participants to reach for the STARS with retirement income
Higher Education | Mid-Atlantic | The State University of New York (SUNY)
participants enrolled into SUNY’s new default solution1
reduction in investment fees paid by plan participants; collectively more than $2 million in annual savings1
more participants discussing their retirement choices with financial consultants, at no additional cost1
Background
The State University of New York (SUNY) is the largest comprehensive university system in the U.S. with 64 individual colleges and universities across the Empire State. SUNY’s mission reflects the land grant ethos to provide higher education access to all people and has a long history of embracing innovation.
All universities grapple with the challenge of how best to offer employees a wide range of investment choices to help them pursue a more secure retirement and to not outlive their savings. Too much complexity can become a barrier to delivering strong outcomes, especially in the context of ensuring access and adoption of products that provide lifetime income.
To develop a new retirement plan default investment solution, SUNY set out on a two-year endeavor that began with a partnership with investment advisory firm CAPTRUST to analyze plan participant data on a custom dashboard. This analysis revealed critical areas for improvement, including opportunities to enhance savings rates and optimize withdrawal methods among participants.
Challenge
For employees
Many participants didn’t understand annuities, and the plan’s annuity was offered separately from its target-date funds. This lack of knowledge and the annuity’s disconnection from the target date funds led to fewer people choosing a retirement strategy that included secure lifetime income.
For the plan sponsor
SUNY wanted to lower costs and a clearer path for guaranteed income in retirement, while keeping disruption to a minimum. Under the previous default option, fewer than half of participants were meeting their recommended allocation to a fixed annuity for retirement income, TIAA Traditional.*
*TIAA Traditional is issued by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA).
TIAA solutions
The SUNY plan sponsor team conducted a thorough analysis to identify savings gaps and outliers within the program. The data revealed that participants weren’t saving enough, and that fewer than expected were contributing to the plan’s lifetime income component.
Adding TIAA Traditional to the default
In 2024, SUNY and CAPTRUST launched an initiative to begin using TIAA RetirePlus Pro® as the plan’s new default investment option. This custom target date strategy uses model portfolios reflecting SUNY’s participant demographics while adding TIAA Traditional as a core component. By including a fixed annuity, the new default investment option offered guaranteed growth for savers and the option for guaranteed income in retirement.
A coordinated engagement strategy
To avoid employee confusion and retirement plan disruption, TIAA worked with SUNY to design an engaging multichannel astronomy-themed communication campaign, which included an annuity education program using written guides, webinars and short videos.
Results
The implementation of SUNY Targeted Allocation Retirement Series (STARS) made TIAA RetirePlus Pro the new plan default investment option for SUNY’s Optional 401(a) Retirement Program, Voluntary 403(b) Savings Plan and the New York State Voluntary Defined Contribution Program.
The new default investment solution was a better fit, allowing for both custom model portfolios and the opportunity for lifetime income in retirement. As a result, over two years, the number of participants meeting their recommended allocations to the guaranteed asset class rose from 46% before the implementation to 77%, according to a proprietary TIAA metric that tracks recommended allocations.
Plan participants saw a 50% reduction in costs, on average. The addition of financial advice for participants led to 45% more participants qualifying under TIAA’s retirement readiness metric,2 which tracks participants’ savings, asset allocation, and allocation to a guaranteed asset class that is benchmarked against similar peers.
As part of an extensive communications strategy, SUNY held a fireside chat—called SUNY Retirement Day— with breakout sessions for participants. SUNY and TIAA also hosted five webinars that reached 1,018 attendees, answered 317 questions, and led to 81 individual advice sessions.
Taken together, STARS reduced fees and added a custom glide path, informed by participant data, that put TIAA Traditional to work as the retirement income engine.
Given the diverse needs and varied demographics of our participants, a one-size-fits-all solution wasn't feasible. Our custom target date model, STARS, provides tailored investment options to best suit each participant’s profile, career stage and accumulated savings.
increase in the number of participants meeting the recommended allocation1
reduction in investment fees paid by plan participants; collectively more than $2 million in annual savings1
opt-out rate, demonstrating the effectiveness of the plan change communications1
Solutions deep dive
TIAA RetirePlus®
Like a target date solution, TIAA RetirePlus uses model portfolios that reflect each plan’s distinct demographics and preferences. The models are diversified across multiple asset classes and are designed to adjust their allocations over time. The models can include a range of investments, such as mutual funds, CITs and annuities, including TIAA Traditional. The model portfolios can be QDIA-eligible and therefore allow employers to include a guaranteed option as part of a plan’s default investment.
TIAA offers two versions of TIAA RetirePlus: TIAA RetirePlus Select®, which uses a predefined set of models, and TIAA RetirePlus Pro, which offers sponsors more customization options. SUNY implemented the TIAA RetirePlus Pro model with customizations that expanded the available underlying options and engaged CAPTRUST to develop and maintain the glidepath.
Evolving retirement planning
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In the absence of social security, this university came up with an innovative solution.
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1 As of June 30, 2025
2 Based on a proprietary metric that measures contribution rates of similar peers.
The results experiences by State University of New York (SUNY) may not be typical of all plans. Individual plan results will vary. Investment products may be subject to market and other risk factors. See the applicable product literature or visit TIAA.org for details.
The testimonial was provided by a current client, and no direct or indirect compensation was given in return. No material conflicts of interest exist on the part of the entity giving the testimonial, resulting from their relationship with the adviser. Results experienced by SUNY may not be representative of the experience of other clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success.
All guarantees are based on TIAA’s claims-paying ability. TIAA Traditional is a guaranteed insurance contract and not an investment for federal securities law purposes. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
TIAA Traditional is a fixed an annuity issued by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017: Form series including but not limited to: 1000.24; G-1000.4; IGRS-01-84-ACC; IGRSP-01-84-ACC; 6008.8. Not all contracts are available in all states or currently issued.
Advice provided by TIAA Financial Consultants is obtained using an advice methodology from an independent third-party.
You should consider the investment objectives, principal strategies, principal risks, portfolio turnover rate, performance data, and fee and expense information of each underlying investment carefully before directing an investment based on the model. For a free copy of the program description and the prospectus or other offering documents for each of the underlying investments (containing this and other information), call TIAA at 877-518-9161. Please read the program description and the prospectuses or other offering documents for the underlying investments carefully before investing.
This material is for informational, educational or non-fiduciary sales opportunities and/or activities only and does not constitute investment advice (e.g., fiduciary advice under ERISA or otherwise), a securities recommendation under all securities laws, or an insurance product recommendation under state insurance laws or regulations to invest through a model or to purchase any security or advice about investing or managing retirement savings. It does not take into account any specific objectives or circumstances of any particular customer, or suggest any specific course of action.
No registration under the Investment Company Act, the Securities Act or state securities laws—the model is not a mutual fund or other type of security and will not be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and no units or shares of the model will be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, nor will they be registered with any state securities regulator. Accordingly, the model is not subject to compliance with the requirements of such acts, nor may plan participants investing in underlying investments based on the model avail themselves of the protections thereunder, except to the extent that one or more underlying investments or interests therein are registered under such acts.
No guarantee – Neither the models nor any investment made pursuant to the models are deposits of, or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by TIAA or their affiliates (except with respect to certain annuities sponsored by TIAA or its affiliates), or insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or any other agency. There is no guarantee that the underlying investments will provide adequate income at and through retirement and participants may experience losses. Participants should not allocate their retirement savings to the underlying investments unless they can readily bear the consequences of such loss.
Assets allocated to the underlying investments based on the model will be invested in underlying mutual funds and annuities that are permissible investments under the plan. Some or all of the underlying investments included in the model may be sponsored or managed by TIAA or its affiliates and pay fees to TIAA and its affiliates. In general, the value of a model-based account will fluctuate based on the performance of the underlying investments in which the account invests. For a detailed discussion of the risks applicable to an underlying investment, please see the prospectus or disclosure document for such underlying investment.
TIAA RetirePlus SelectSM and TIAA RetirePlus Pro® are administered by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (“TIAA”) as plan recordkeeper. TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, Member FINRA distributes securities products. TIAA and CREF annuity contracts and certificates are issued by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), New York, NY, respectively. Each is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Transactions in the underlying investments invested in based on the models on behalf of the plan participants are executed through TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, member FINRA.
TIAA RetirePlus Pro
TIAA RetirePlus Pro, a model-based service, is administered by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (“TIAA”) as plan recordkeeper. The TIAA RetirePlus Pro Models are asset allocation recommendations developed in one of three ways, depending on your plan structure: i) by your plan sponsor, ii) by your plan sponsor in consultation with consultants and other investment advisors designated by the plan sponsor, or iii) exclusively by consultants and other investment advisors selected by your plan sponsor whereby assets are allocated to underlying mutual funds and annuities that are permissible investments under the plan. Model-based accounts will be managed on the basis of the plan participant’s personal financial situation and investment objectives (for example, taking into account factors such as participant age and risk capacity as determined by a risk tolerance questionnaire). The plan fiduciary and the plan advisor may determine that an underlying investment(s) is appropriate for a model portfolio, but not appropriate as a stand-alone investment for a participant who is not participating in TIAA RetirePlus Pro. In such case, participants who elect to unsubscribe from the service while holding an underlying investment(s) in their model-based account that has been deemed inappropriate as a stand-alone investment option by the plan fiduciary and/or plan advisor will be prohibited from allocating future contributions to that investment option(s).
Established Restrictions: Each plan participant may, but need not, propose restrictions for his or her model-based account, which will further customize such plan participant’s own portfolio of underlying investments. The plan fiduciary is responsible for considering any restrictions proposed by a plan participant, and for determining (together with plan advisor(s)) whether the proposed restriction is “reasonable” in each case.
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